How to Dress Up Screw-Cap Wine

Wine snobs never thought the day would come, but here it is: Quality winemakers around the world are packaging their vino like soda pop and hot sauce -- with a humble screw cap. Roughly 5 percent of traditional wines are tainted by faulty corks and rendered undrinkable, which explains why producers in New Zealand, Australia, California and other progressive wine regions have turned to twist-offs. Yes, corks will always be more special, but as San Francisco master sommelier Peter Granoff points out: "If you need a cork to create romance in your life, you've probably got bigger problems." Here's how to dress up your screw-top bottles:

Towel Tricks
Drape a linen towel over the neck of the bottle, twist and pull the cap away inside the towel.

Magic Bottle
Open the wine in private and decant it -- your guests will never know a cap was involved.

Nutty Idea
Use a nutcracker to mimic a corkscrew: Hold the cap in place with the nutcracker and twist the bottle to elicit a pleasant "crack."